Both teams have extremely balanced offenses. Arizona and Nevada are two of just three teams in the nation that average at least 230 rushing yards and 240 passing yards per game. The other is Texas A&M.

Arizona quarterback Matt Scott is similar to Cody Fajardo because he provides dual-threat abilities. Scott passed for 3,238 yards and rushed for 485 yards. He’s accounted for 29 touchdowns.

Neither team’s defense has been stellar. Arizona is allowing 34.3 points per game, while Nevada has yielded 32.5 points per contest.

Born to run

If you like watching entertaining running backs, the New Mexico Bowl is your kind of game.

Arizona’s Ka’Deem Carey is first in the nation in rushing yards per game and Nevada’s Stefphon Jefferson is second. Carey has rushed for 1,757 yards and 20 touchdowns; Jefferson is at 1,703 and 22.

Both trail Northern Illinois quarterback Jordan Lynch, who is the nation’s leading rusher with 1,771 yards. But Lynch has played one more game than Carey and Jefferson and the NCAA’s rushing champion is determined by average yards per game and not total yardage.

The last time a Wolf Pack player led the nation in rushing was 2001 when freshman Chance Krestchmer finished the season with a school-record 1,732 yards. Jefferson is just 29 yards shy of that mark.

Jekyll and Hyde

Consistency hasn’t been a strong suit for either team.

Arizona beat three pretty good team (Southern Cal, Washington and Oklahoma State) and hung tough with No. 8 Stanford and No. 15 Oregon State (losing by a combined nine points to those teams), but also was blown out by Oregon (49-0) and UCLA (66-10).

Nevada, meanwhile, has failed to put together a full game on offense and defense all year. The Pack collapsed in the fourth quarter in losses to South Florida and San Diego State and didn’t show up for the Air Force game, but also played well in wins over Cal and Hawaii and in portions of other games.

It will be hard to judge just how both teams will come out in the bowl game given the fact that they’ve been so up and down this season.

First in the trilogy

Nevada and Arizona have faced each other three times, but this will be the first matchup between the programs since the Wildcats knocked off the Wolf Pack, 26-7, in 1941. The teams also tied in 1925, while Nevada scored a 23-14 upset in 1924

But the two programs will be plenty familiar with one another in the next couple of seasons. The Wolf Pack and Wildcats are scheduled to play each other in 2014 (in Tucson) and 2015 (in Reno).

This also will be a rare game for Nevada against a Pac-12 foe. Since the Wolf Pack became an FBS team in 1992, Nevada is 3-12 all-time against the Pac-12. One of those wins came earlier this year when the Wolf Pack opened the season with a 31-24 win at Cal.

Pack’s poor bowl history

Nevada’s streak of eight straight appearances in a bowl game is tied for the 13th-longest active mark in the nation, but the recent history hasn’t been too rosy.

The Wolf Pack is just 2-5 during the current streak of bowl appearances, with the lone wins coming in the 2010 Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl (a 20-13 win over Boston College) and the 2005 Hawaii Bowl (a 49-48 overtime win over Central Florida). Five of the seven bowls have been decided by a touchdown or less.

In the Wolf Pack’s 12 bowl games, the school is 4-8. Arizona is 6-9-1 all-time in bowl games, with its last appearance a 36-10 loss to Oklahoma State in the 2010 Alamo Bowl.

I bet almost everything he wrote about "Arizona" is actually about Arizona State. Good grief...

About this blog

Longtime RGJ Media reporter Dan Hinxman is the authority on Wolf Pack athletics, bringing you the day-to-day coverage of Nevada’s sports teams. Dan has covered almost everything the Northern Nevada sports scene has to offer and will use his knowledge to bring you authoritative and engaging Wolf Pack content. Follow him on Twitter at @DanHinxmanRGJ.